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Vietnam is seeing big export orders in some sectors: Investor 3:44 AM ET Wed, 16 Jan 2019 | 02:06As the ongoing U.S.-China trade war threatens to dent exports from the world’s two largest economies, analysts have projected that other countries may see Chinese and American demand diverted their way. Vietnam — and Southeast Asia as a whole — is one of the places most expected to benefit from trade war-inspired buying. “It’s a bit early for Vietnam to be benefiting in a big way from trade wars,” Bi

As the ongoing U.S.-China trade war threatens to dent exports from the world’s two largest economies, analysts have projected that other countries may see Chinese and American demand diverted their way.

Vietnam — and Southeast Asia as a whole — is one of the places most expected to benefit from trade war-inspired buying. According to one investor, however, the profit so far has been slight.

“It’s a bit early for Vietnam to be benefiting in a big way from trade wars,” Bill Stoops, the chief investment officer of asset management company Dragon Capital, told CNBC on Wednesday.

The Southeast Asian nation has been touted as a possible winner in the U.S.-China trade war because of its low cost of manufacturing. Reports indicate that some companies have begun shifting production out of China to avoid tariffs imposed by America.

Vietnam will likely benefit from those adjusted supply chains for a long time, according to Rob Koepp, network director of the Economist Corporate Network.

“It is now set to be kind of a China 2.0, for various reasons, and yeah, it’s going to be benefiting and that’s going to be long term,” he told CNBC on Thursday.

While firms have likely been limited by the logistical constraints of relocating and building new facilities in Vietnam, the country has begun to see new orders “flooding” into its existing industries that have some capacity for increased production, Stoops said.

“We are already starting to see big orders, big export orders flowing, out of nowhere, into the seafood, and the furniture and the garment industry,” Stoops told CNBC’s Street Signs. “I think this is a harbinger of things to come, as people start to divert business away from China.”

“It hasn’t happened yet, but it’s definitely in the works, and we’re starting to see straws in the wind with all these new export orders,” he added.

Shares of Tesla fell 10 percent on Friday after the company announced layoffs, but the electric-car maker is still in the lead position on a technology that is taking over the world, said an early Tesla board member. He is moving faster than anybody else, going global faster than anybody else, and today, Tesla is essentially the iPhone of the electric-car market,” said Westly, a California politician and venture capitalist who was an early investor in the company. While other premium automakers

Shares of Tesla fell 10 percent on Friday after the company announced layoffs, but the electric-car maker is still in the lead position on a technology that is taking over the world, said an early Tesla board member.

Tesla’s Friday announcement that it will cut 7 percent of its workforce is a sign CEO Elon Musk is taking steps to “right-size” the company and prepare it for the future, said former Tesla board member Steve Westly.

” He is moving faster than anybody else, going global faster than anybody else, and today, Tesla is essentially the iPhone of the electric-car market,” said Westly, a California politician and venture capitalist who was an early investor in the company.

While other premium automakers have now jumped into the electric-car market, they were caught “with their shorts down when the tide went out,” and Tesla now has a large lead in that market, Westly said. The company also posted a surprise profit in the third quarter, and Musk has said he expects Tesla to be cash-flow positive and profitable going forward.

“They’ve won the North American premium market race,” he said. “The challenge now is to win the mass market, to go international. I think he is preparing the company to do that. I wouldn’t bet against him.”

However, not everyone agrees with Westly’s assessment.

Tesla’s fourth-quarter update indicated that more than 75 percent of new Model 3 orders came from new customers rather than the existing reservations list. Almost all of those new orders were for mid- and high-price variants of the sedan, said Rajvindra Gill, an analyst for Needham.

Gill estimates that about 90 percent of the 420,000 reservations on that list built up the last couple of years are customers who wanted the still-unreleased standard battery version of the vehicle, which is $35,000.

The issue is that as the $7,500 federal tax credit for electric vehicles continues to wind down, Tesla could start to see customers cancel reservations in the first and second quarter if the company cannot make the planned $35,000 base model quickly enough.

The other issue is that Tesla’s profitable quarter depended in part on selling the more expensive versions of the Model 3, which should make up a smaller piece of the total if Tesla begins producing the cheaper version.

“So I think there’s a lot of risk to the name given the level of valuation we see in this name, given the level of debt the company has, and given the level of competition that will be entering the market this year and next year,” Gill said.

“He converted, in a 30-year period, a lot of people to the right religion of investing,” added the Oracle of Omaha. Buffett, 88, has long been an admirer of Bogle because of their shared interest in sensible long-term investing. For decades, Jack has urged investors to invest in ultra-low-cost index funds. In his early years, Jack was frequently mocked by the investment-management industry. WATCH: Vanguard Founder Jack Bogle dies at 89

“He converted, in a 30-year period, a lot of people to the right religion of investing,” added the Oracle of Omaha. “And it’s a good religion. It pays off.”

Buffett, 88, has long been an admirer of Bogle because of their shared interest in sensible long-term investing.

The chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway shared these words on Bogle in his widely read annual letter to shareholders two years ago:

“If a statue is ever erected to honor the person who has done the most for American investors, the hands down choice should be Jack Bogle. For decades, Jack has urged investors to invest in ultra-low-cost index funds. In his crusade, he amassed only a tiny percentage of the wealth that has typically flowed to managers who have promised their investors large rewards while delivering them nothing – or, as in our bet, less than nothing – of added value. In his early years, Jack was frequently mocked by the investment-management industry. Today, however, he has the satisfaction of knowing that he helped millions of investors realize far better returns on their savings than they otherwise would have earned. He is a hero to them and to me.”

Veteran value investor Bill Nygren is betting on Netflix — and he does not think its new price increase will impact subscriber growth. While there may be some debate on whether Netflix is actually a value stock, Nygren said, by his measure, it is. Nygren does not think that GAAP accounting does a reasonable job of measuring Netflix’s value. That’s a price that only makes sense if AT&T thought HBO subscribers were worth about $1,000 each, Nygren argued. Both Netflix and HBO have more than 100 mil

Veteran value investor Bill Nygren is betting on Netflix — and he does not think its new price increase will impact subscriber growth.

The Oakmark portfolio manager told CNBC Tuesday he bought more Netflix shares during the December sell-off.

Nygren said on “Fast Money: Halftime Report” he’s not concerned about the streaming video service’s newly announced price hikes of between 13 percent and 18 percent for its 58 million U.S. subscribers.

While there may be some debate on whether Netflix is actually a value stock, Nygren said, by his measure, it is.

Nygren does not think that GAAP accounting does a reasonable job of measuring Netflix’s value. GAAP, which stands for generally accepted accounting principals, is the common set that companies follow on financial statements.

Instead, he looks at AT&T’s acquisition of Time Warner, which cost $85 billion. That’s a price that only makes sense if AT&T thought HBO subscribers were worth about $1,000 each, Nygren argued.

By comparison, Netflix is selling at less than HBO on a per-subscriber basis, yet its subscribers are growing at 20 percent instead of flat-lining, he explained. Both Netflix and HBO have more than 100 million subscribers worldwide.

“Our thesis on Netflix from the beginning is that they were underpricing their product in exchange for achieving super-normal growth in subscribers, an economic trade-off we thought was well worthwhile,” he added.

Asia stocks mostly gained Friday amid improved investor sentiment following overnight gains on Wall Street. The mainland Chinese markets, watched in relation to the ongoing trade war between Beijing and Washington, were higher on the day. The moves followed after officials from Washington and Beijing met for trade talks earlier this week — details about the progress were sparse. U.S. and China have halted an ongoing trade war to try and resolve sticking issues on a number of areas. “There are so

The mainland Chinese markets, watched in relation to the ongoing trade war between Beijing and Washington, were higher on the day. The Shanghai composite was up about 0.74 percent to close around 2,553.83 while the Shenzhen composite gained 0.758 percent to about 1,313.36. The Shenzhen component also rose 0.611 percent to close around 7,474.01.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index gained about 0.5 percent, as of its final hour of trade.

The moves followed after officials from Washington and Beijing met for trade talks earlier this week — details about the progress were sparse. U.S. and China have halted an ongoing trade war to try and resolve sticking issues on a number of areas. Analysts who spoke to CNBC on Friday were divided whether a deal between the two economic powerhouses would be forthcoming.

“I think (U.S. President Donald) Trump wants to have a win and (Chinese leader) Xi Jinping desperately needs to have a win. So, I think they’re gonna come to some agreement … probably in the first quarter,” Andrew Collier, managing director at Orient Capital Research, told CNBC’s “Street Signs” on Friday.

Collier said, however, trade frictions between Washington and Beijing are unlikely to end as “China clearly … is a threat to the United States and plus it has done many things that many countries disagree with.”

Others did not agree.

“There are some that would argue that the Trump administration needs a deal, given that they’re walking into an election cycle in 2020 … I would respectfully disagree,” James Sullivan, head of equity research ex-Japan at J.P. Morgan, said. “What the Trump administration needs to do is incite his base. A deal, by definition, means compromise. Compromise doesn’t incite.”

In a part of the world better known for towering skyscrapers and oil than for its startup scene, Gulf Arab entrepreneurs might be seeing bright times ahead. That’s according to Fadi Ghandour, executive chairman of Wanda Group, whose venture capital fund invests in tech companies all over the Middle East and North Africa. Now that oil prices are dramatically down from their October highs, the veteran Middle East investor says the market moves “will definitely be a blessing in disguise” and in tha

In a part of the world better known for towering skyscrapers and oil than for its startup scene, Gulf Arab entrepreneurs might be seeing bright times ahead. That’s according to Fadi Ghandour, executive chairman of Wanda Group, whose venture capital fund invests in tech companies all over the Middle East and North Africa.

“For years we’ve said there is an inverse relationship between how change happens on the regulatory environment and the price of oil — the lower the price of oil, the faster the change process happens,” Ghandour told CNBC’s Hadley Gamble on Thursday, pointing to Arab Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates whose economies have historically been dependent on hydrocarbon revenues.

Now that oil prices are dramatically down from their October highs, the veteran Middle East investor says the market moves “will definitely be a blessing in disguise” and in that it will force the development of sustainable, knowledge-based economies and jobs. He believes that startups founded five or more years ago are now reaching their maturity stage, meaning there will be more businesses scaling up in the next several years — if they can get the necessary support.

“These companies born somewhere around 2011, 2012, have raised much more money, they are growing much faster, the region is adopting mobile smartphone technology much faster, they are interacting much faster and at a much larger scale, specifically in Saudi Arabia,” Ghandour said.

“This is the time when there is size, there is scale, and the big funds globally who don’t want to take the risk early on, are going to be looking for entry into a market that they don’t have much presence in.” He pointed to New York-based global equity firm General Atlantic’s investment of $120 million in Dubai-based website Property Finder last November. The Middle East real estate platform was founded in 2007 and has been profitable since 2013.

Investments in Middle East and North Africa (MENA)-based startups went up by 31 percent between 2017 and 2018 to $893 million, with 366 deals made, according to Magnitt, a regional data platform for investors. The database also found that more than 155 institutions invested in MENA startups in 2018, 30 percent of which were from outside the region and 47 percent of which had not previously invested in the region.

The Nasdaq Dubai has launched futures trading on shares of 12 Saudi Arabian companies, its first single stock futures outside of the United Arab Emirates. The move aims to diversify financial offerings to regional and international investors, allowing them to both invest in and trade Saudi companies on the Emirati exchange. The companies now available for futures trading on the Dubai exchange comprise a market capitalization of 794 billion Saudi riyals ($212 billion) and cover sectors including

The Nasdaq Dubai has launched futures trading on shares of 12 Saudi Arabian companies, its first single stock futures outside of the United Arab Emirates. The move aims to diversify financial offerings to regional and international investors, allowing them to both invest in and trade Saudi companies on the Emirati exchange.

The companies now available for futures trading on the Dubai exchange comprise a market capitalization of 794 billion Saudi riyals ($212 billion) and cover sectors including real estate, mining, banks, industrial materials and petrochemicals.

“This is a very good opportunity for investors out of the region to be able to hedge or take positions, long or short, when it comes to Saudi markets,” Nasdaq Dubai Chief Executive Hamed Ali told CNBC on Wednesday. “It’s a product that complements the current Saudi market, rather than competes with it.”

Futures are financial products used to speculate on the price movement of an underlying asset. Going short is betting that a company’s share price will fall.

Despiteweakened international confidence in Saudi Arabia after a slew of political controversies over the last year, the Nasdaq Dubai’s senior management see promise in the oil-rich kingdom’s reform agenda. Ali emphasized his confidence on Saudi Arabia’s planned reforms toward a more open economy and remained optimistic on the country’s outlook.

Indeed, the kingdom’s inclusion in the MSCI emerging markets index slated for this year is expected to attract some $15 billion in passive funds and several billions more in active funds. Investors have pointed to Riyadh’s easing of some regulatory requirements and adoption of international best practice procedures as signs of progress.

Among those heavily tied to the stock are the XLK Technology SPDR, the VGT Vanguard Tech ETF and Fidelity’s FTEC MSCI Tech index. But if you’re tech ETF has been burned by the Apple trade, there are other ways to invest in the tech space. That puts your Apple exposure inside of the RYT as half of the exposure you would have just in the S&P 500. It doesn’t have to be an ‘own it all’ because you’ve chosen an ETF,” Yones said Monday. The ARKK is up more than 3 percent over the last year, while the

Shares of the tech giant are down over 30 percent from its October high, shedding more than $400 billion in market capitalization from peak to trough.

Apple’s collapse comes amid growing fears over iPhone demand and trade tensions. Last week, the stock fell nearly 10 percent in a day, setting its worst performance since 2013 after CEO Tim Cook told CNBC that the company could come up short on its quarterly earnings report later this month.

The move not only shocked Apple investors, but it underscored a key theme in the exchange-traded funds (ETF) market: Know what you own.

According to ETF.com, nearly 300 million shares of Apple are scattered throughout hundreds of U.S. funds. Among those heavily tied to the stock are the XLK Technology SPDR, the VGT Vanguard Tech ETF and Fidelity’s FTEC MSCI Tech index.

But if you’re tech ETF has been burned by the Apple trade, there are other ways to invest in the tech space.

He added that Apple’s “exposure to each individual name is only about 1.5 percent. That puts your Apple exposure inside of the RYT as half of the exposure you would have just in the S&P 500. Currently Apple is sitting at about 3.5 percent of the S&P.”

In addition to Apple, the RYT holds stocks like Applied Materials, Salesforce, Oracle and Visa.

Doug Yones, head of exchange traded products at the New York Stock Exchange, looked to two actively managed tech ETFs that have been beating the market.

“You have the Ark Innovation ETF, the ARKK, and the Ark Web x.o ETF, the ARKW, both of which are in the technology sector where a portfolio manager is going to choose whether they want to own Apple. It doesn’t have to be an ‘own it all’ because you’ve chosen an ETF,” Yones said Monday.

The ARKK is up more than 3 percent over the last year, while the XLK tech sector ETF is down more than 4 percent.

The offering, also 2019’s first for an emerging market, attracted $4 billion in demand and signals investor confidence in the Southeast Asian economy, National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon told Reuters. The bonds, launched on Monday, carry a coupon of 3.75 percent and were priced at spread of US Treasurys plus 110 basis points, below guidance of plus 130 basis points amid strong demand, she said. The issue “demonstrates strong conviction from the global investor community” on the Philippines’ econo

Chinese leaders have ‘political will’ to end trade war: Investor8 Hours AgoFred Hu of Primavera Capital Group explains the various reasons why he says he believes that Chinese leaders will do “everything possible” to end the trade war with the U.S.